


Level 7 Theft

by BonGarland



Category: Thor (Movies), Thor - Fandom
Genre: But still a bamf, Darcy is a damsel in distress, F/M, angry Loki to the rescue
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-24
Updated: 2014-02-23
Packaged: 2018-01-13 14:25:30
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 9,472
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1229794
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BonGarland/pseuds/BonGarland
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Something of great importance to Loki has been taken without his permission, and as they say, drastic times call for... Established Tasertricks and Thane.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> In a mood to post some older Tasertricks stuff from FFN, so...

Darcy Lewis awoke slowly, painfully, aware from the first stage past unconsciousness that she was definitely not in her own bed. She was in an upright position, seated…on a rickety old chair? Blinking furiously, she shifted her head to free her vision from the heavy dark curls obstructing it, regretting the action instantly as a wave of pain swept across her senses. Okay, no more head movement.

Her hands were bound behind her back, so tightly that blood flow appeared to have been long cut off, and she couldn't feel her fingers. A hiss of pain escaped her lips as she shifted slightly, trying to angle her restrained arms into a less uncomfortable position, but as firmly bound as she was, the awkward angle of her shoulders and upper arms was unavoidable. She huffed in defeat, abandoning pursuit of relief in favor of figuring out where the hell she was. It was freezing, she knew that much, clad as she was in a thin, silk halter top and skinny jeans.

She couldn't remember much about the night before…She'd gone out for drinks with Jane, and then headed back to her own SHIELD-sponsored apartment afterwards, but…There.

She remembered getting out of a taxi, paying the driver and wishing him a good night, and the car had driven off. She'd started for the building, stumbling slightly in the combination of darkness and one-too many shots, just looking forward to getting to her apartment and seeing if, on the off chance, Loki had made a rare visit.

Scrabbling around in her oversized bag for her elusive keys, she barely noticed a strange clanking noise growing closer, until it was too late. Her fist emerging triumphant from her bag, Darcy had hardly a moment to utter a quick "There" in satisfaction, before a strange…robot? was in front of her, holding what looked like a blaster pistol straight out of a Star Wars movie.

"Uh, Iron Man?" She voiced stupidly, blinking and disoriented.

The head, or was it a helmet? moved, revealing the head of a very pale man, who appeared human, but something felt off. Darcy gulped, hand moving back to her bag to forage for her trusty taser. "Can I help you?"

The man spoke with an oddly-accented, flat tone. "Are you Darcy Lewis? Ally of Thor Odinson?"

"Uhhhh I'm gonna have to decline to answer that-" Darcy said unevenly, backing away cautiously. Without another noise, the man's strange weapon made a weird noise, something akin to a duck quack given a techno remix, a flash of light shot in her direction, and everything went black.

She was roused from her stumble down the memory lane of last night by that same creepily-toneless voice. "You are indeed Darcy Lewis. We have ascertained this from identification cards in your possession."

Great, they'd gone through her stuff. She cautiously raised her head, to see the same pale-as-hell dude, now clad in some weird gold-trimmed green robe, staring at her. And he wasn't alone – it looked like an entire army stood behind him, though it was really only five more guys, similar in appearance, who crowded the small room. She hoped her small gulp of fear was hidden by the chocolaty tresses still half-covering her face, before she tilted her chin up, shaking the curtain back as she cleared her throat, summoning courage. She wouldn't be here long, right? "And what's on your identification, big guy?"

The men – albinos? – alien monks? shifted in unison, appearing all the more creepy, as their pale eyes focused on her more intensely after she spoke. The leader placed his hands behind his back, his own gaze disinterested at best as it roamed the room. "Not that we owe explanation to a mere human mortal we now hold as a captive bargaining chip, but we are deonists. The soul survivors. And you should fear us. Our technology is advanced, our ranks determined, and we are now merely in need of a …power generator, so to speak. You shall help us get it, for Thor Odinson is who we seek."

"I'm not exactly a Sonic Screwdriver or anything, not some supreme tool to meet your nefarious ends, uh…I like to shop online for shoes, and occasionally I type numbers into a computer that, turns out, are bits of atmospheric data, but really, I think you've got the wrong person-" The words flooded out of Darcy's mouth, unchecked as usual, but the hangover she was nursing while simultaneously enduring torturous captivity was weighing on her in a bad way, making her cranky, and she coughed before falling completely silent again.

Scowling as deeply as her headache would permit, she watched the Deonist leader pace the length of the room, fiddling with something in his hands. He turned back towards her, and she saw he held a cellphone. Hitting another button, he spoke. "You will contact the Odinson. We know he is in this realm at this moment, do not bother to attempt to deceive us."

Where on earth was SHIELD? Was this supposed to happen? She could just be taken by alien lifeforms with a mean agenda and no one would notice? Jane would probably assume she was in bed sleeping off a hangover, and wouldn't bother contact until later in the day…Her mind raced as she tried to evaluate her situation, and so she kept talking.

"You think he's just, what, got himself a cellphone? That there are some Godly digits I can type in and Thor's gonna answer? You clearly don't know him, he's baffled by a coffeemaker for goodness'-"

The man was suddenly across the room and striking her across the face before she could finish her sentence. Reeling backwards from the hit, a whimper escaped Darcy's plush lips, already beginning to swell, as blood dribbled down her alabaster cheek. Flinging her hair again out of her face, she set her jaw defiantly, continuing. "And if you think these numb sausages I've got for fingers can even dial one Godly digit-"

"SILENCE." The roar cut her off as the man raised his hand again, sending a shudder through her body. Clearly this situation was one of the less-lucky benefits of knowing Thor. This guy clearly wasn't reluctant to hurt her, and that made her very frightened indeed.

Playing for time, though whose time and how much of it she needed, she had no idea, Darcy took a breath and whispered, "What do you want me to do?"

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Meanwhile, the god of thunder himself was enduring a harsh berating by his half-brother, the god of mischief, over how, why, and again how, he could have let the assistant of his mortal love be taken. By Deonists, of all beings, and how he knew this Thor was yet unaware, but also in the middle of the night and why did she not have a protection assignation and so on.

Thor had a headache, from Loki's rage, Jane's worry, and his own stress at the realization that Darcy had never made it home. They were in Jane's apartment, where he had met her last night after her night out with Darcy. Jane had been pretty drunk, and so he had cared for her all night, Darcy admittedly not crossing his mind. In the early hours of dawn, his brother had arrived, shockingly employing the courtesy to knock on the front door instead of simply appearing in the living room, but quickly barging past Thor and beginning to pace the length of the room as he voiced his concerns.

Loki was waving around a jingling cluster of his keys as he yelled, Darcy's keys, which she had dropped in the struggle, and he'd subsequently found when he approached her apartment, around four in the morning. How he knew where she lived or why he was heading there were irrelevant pieces of information, he had snarled more than once, and the point was that she was gone, obviously taken under duress, his magic could sense from contact with her keys alone. He had infiltrated the high-tech security system of the SHIELD-run complex she lived in, and as secure as the building was, that only went for the building itself.

The sidewalk area was very dimly lit, an oversight Loki had said would soon be remedied if he had to build several lampposts himself upon the street, and as such, the security footage was grainy, and not even focused on the area of interest. The very corner of the screen had shown Darcy emerging from a cab, stumbling slightly, pausing to fumble in her bag for something. Offscreen, someone or something had approached her, as she had begun to speak with it, her movements becoming fretful, and then she moved to back away. A light had flashed, obliterating any of the camera's view, but not before some sort of robotic suit had moved into sight. His blood had chilled when he recognized the design. When the blast of light had dulled, Darcy was sprawled on the ground, and was soon being dragged unceremoniously out of the picture.

Needless to say, the building's office was going to need several new monitors and other essential pieces of equipment, which were likely still being picked up, shattered victims of Loki's distress at the sight of the human girl being treated in such a manner.

"Okay, um, let's think." Jane's words were pained, as she was still nursing a hangover, a wet cloth clutched to her head as she sat at the kitchen island in the next room. "Who are these, uh, aliens again?"

"Deonists." Loki spat the word, hand clenching around the bunch of keys he held, oblivious to the discomfort the little jagged pieces of metal caused. "An ancient parasitic race who are perpetually seeking godly figures, whose life force they siphon to fuel their highly-advanced technology and living spaces. Their own world was destroyed long ago, after a failed attempt at harnessing Odin himself, and they've been nomadic ever since, scrounging about in small platoons whose energy requirements are easier to fulfill. I believe they found a way to circumvent the human's monitoring systems to infiltrate Midgard, but my own senses detected a peculiar disturbance in the atmosphere earlier last night. Thinking it Thor, I regretfully ignored it for the moment…"

He whirled in place. "They must want you, Thor. Your presence here is widely known, and you are but one of our kind here, alone and assumedly defenseless past your own abilities." His eyes narrowed, and anger burned in their depths. "Darcy is a known affiliate of yours. It makes sense that she, as an easily-restrained yet valuable mortal, would be taken as leverage." There was a crack of plaster giving way, as Loki's other fist found its way into the wall next to him.

Jane gave a small squawk of alarm, thinking of the damage deposit on the apartment, but swallowed down a reprimand at the sight of Loki's state of mind. For whatever reason, he seemed the most concerned of anyone at Darcy's disappearance. She'd get the goods later, from the girl herself, if- when she was rescued. Heaving herself from the stool she'd occupied since the mischief god had basically kicked down her door, Jane padded into the living room, grabbing her vibrating phone with a worried look at Thor. Unless they heard something soon, she likely wouldn't have an apartment left.

"Jane Foster," she murmured hopefully, rewarded with the voice of a SHIELD agent on the other end. "No strange energy readings in the past several days in our region? Satellites offline..." She spoke the agent's findings aloud for the two brothers' benefit. "Okay, but her cellphone, like I mentioned? Okay, give me one second-" Jane grabbed a nearby takeout menu, hurriedly scribbling something on it. "No, I appreciate this on the down-low, yep, thank you. Bye." She hung up and turned around, only to find Loki right in her face.

She yelped, stepping backward and tripping, only to have Thor appear at her side, steadying her with a massive, but gentle, hand on her elbow.

"So that was SHIELD," she started unnecessarily, "They still haven't gotten any readings on any atmospheric disturbances, but there was a strange satellite network blackout last night, affecting, strangely enough, only the ones in our immediate area. It was for about five minutes, which, at the speed you two move, I'm certain is more than enough for something to have made its way in unseen." She took a breath, glancing at the piece of paper she held before handing it to Loki, who took it with a surprising lack of force. "Someone owed me a favor, and got me the coordinates SHIELD was able to last track Darcy's phone to. It kept moving since we told them to look into it. But they said this signal was weak, and finally disappeared altogether at this point. She may not be there. They have operatives moving in as we speak, and told me not to-"

Her apartment door was already banging shut as she finished, the discarded piece of paper fluttering to the ground. "-appear within a ten-mile radius…"


	2. Chapter 2

"Does Loki even realize where he's headed?" Jane wondered aloud as she dressed hurriedly after a quick shower, pausing to take a swig from a bottle of Sprite. She was still nauseous from all the celebratory shots last night, for a minor breakthrough in her work. "The middle of the desert, an underground labyrinth of military bunkers?"

"I do not think he would admit it if he did not, either way." Thor's rumbling tone reached her ears from the next room, where he watched a children's cartoon show curiously.

"You're probably right." Jane appeared in the doorway, clad in tight jeans ending in durable boots, and a plaid shirt layered over a white tanktop. She held an iPad, swiping frantically across its surface as she mapped the region, zooming in and out, left and right. "We can't interrupt SHIELD or I'm gonna be toast, but…I mean, he's gone ahead, and he's sorta…our responsibility."

Thor stood, having traded his casual clothes for his armor, sans cloak, and tapped Mjölnir distractedly against one palm. "I do not like the idea of you accompanying me into such an unpredictable fight."

But Jane would not be swayed. "I can help, and I won't abandon Darcy. Who knows what they're doing to her?"

"Loki may have a plan already in action," Thor began, but Jane cut him off. "I have even less of an idea of his intentions than the enemy's, Thor!"

Thor quieted, opting to merely open the door for her.

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Humans were constantly astounding him with tiny aspects of their ingenuity, Loki mused, crouched on the desert floor above what appeared to be any old patch of sandy ground. A razor-sharp desert wind swept across the area, whipping Loki's dark locks into his face, but he paid no heed. His hands made complicated gestures across the brown grains nearly of their own accord, and he frowned at the results. There was indeed a trace of Darcy here, but it was very faint, and he could tell it ended here. He rose, and began to pace across the spot, muttering ideas to himself.

After a particularly hard step, Loki froze at the hollow rattling noise his boot had elicited. Pivoting on the spot, he crouched again, rapping with his knuckles and earning the same sound. Standing again, he raised a leg before plunging it downward with enough force to rupture whatever metal guard was in place beneath the desert's surface. Reaching down, he pulled the now-gnarled metal sheeting away as if it were paper to his hands, making a space large enough to leap into.

Vaulting himself through, he landed in a pitch-black corridor of sorts. Conjuring an orb of blue light with ease, he frowned, ascertaining the tunnel went in several different directions. An idea occurring, Loki reached within the armor he had summoned onto himself, retrieving a small beaded chain.

Darcy was fond of making beaded jewelry, and had pushed the tiny trinket into his possession until he relented with feigned resignation. Secretly he treasured the small token of her affection, feeling closer to her even at the sight of it, whether he was miles or galaxies away. Now he muttered a spell into his fist, closed over the chain, and waited for a moment.

A strand of pale blue mist, nearly the same shade as her bright blue eyes, started to unfurl from the surface of the chain he held. As he watched, it drifted uncertainly in a small circle, and then lunged to the right, before dissipating completely. Nodding absently, he put the chain away carefully, then started to walk, the ball of blue light bobbing alongside him almost cheerfully.

As they got in the car, Jane's phone rang, the caller ID giving no information. Odd. "Hello?" She answered cautiously, darting a glance at Thor, who was paying rapt attention.

"J-jane?" Darcy's voice answered with a slight, uncharacteristic tremble in it.

"Darcy?! Where are you?! Are you okay?!" Jane started babbling, but Darcy's odd tone cut her off again.

"Jane, my…captors, they want Thor. They w-want to trade, for him."

Jane reached a hand across to Thor, her grip landing on his sturdy forearm and clutching at it for comfort. He placed his other hand across it as she replied. "Who, Darcy?"

There was a noise of impact on the other end of the line, ending in a cry from Darcy, and a furious voice, in strangely accented syllables, yelled to "Stop stalling, trade or no." Darcy returned to the line, stumbling over her words. "Thor needs to come to the f-following coordinates, by sundown tonight or they're…gonna hurt me. More." The last word was a whisper, and then the strange male alien tone took over, giving the coordinates. Then the line went dead.

Jane took a deep breath, retrieving her hand from Thor's arm with an affectionate pat, before starting the vehicle. "I don't suppose Loki's got a cell phone," she breathed, hitting the speed dial for SHIELD and putting the car into gear.

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It had been a long night, morning, whatever length of time Darcy had spent since falling into alien clutches, and she didn't know how many more swats to the face she could take. She had also never wished so fervently for the ability to scratch her own nose.

The Deonists had deigned to allow her to use the bathroom with the creepy supervision of one of the albino guys, who only turned his back after a miniature war of glares. It looked like she had been in some sort of aged military bunker, with different purposes for each room, but unfortunately, no kitchen complete with stocked refrigerator. Her stomach had been growling loudly for the past couple hours, almost as if trying to converse with her. She'd almost relish the company.

The dirty, cracked mirror above the sink that she reluctantly glanced in showed a very pale Darcy, disheveled and bruised. Her lip had stopped bleeding, but her entire mouth was swollen and painful, traces of blood crusted across her jaw. Her wrists were rubbed raw from the rope, to the point of bleeding, and she was trying not to look at them too much, having felt her bonds soaked through when the numbness of her hands wore off. Long sleeves would be worn for a while.

She was then re-bound, though less tightly, and made to walk down a long, chilly corridor, complete with eerie dripping noises and echoes of every little sound. Idly, she wondered where her stuff had gone, doubting the aliens had much use for a debit card, makeup compact, or perfume. The Deonists, carrying strange-looking lanterns to light the way, flanked her like an envoy of bodyguards, though they were anything but, and she shivered whenever one brushed against her.

It felt like hours later when they stopped her in a wide chamber, spreading out and examining the edges of it. Their lights revealed something resembling an underground power station, with metal fixtures everywhere and wires and cables running to and fro like an elaborate mechanical spider web. Cobwebs covered most surfaces, so that idea was plausible…

Several doorways seemed to convene in this room, and she eyed the nearest dark entryway warily, before she was shoved to the side, giving a gasp of pain as she crashed into a panel of circuit breakers. The pain was quickly masked by relief that she hadn't been electrocuted by the ancient circuits, and she was glad the Deonists were only using lanterns and hadn't tried to revive the building's electricity.

Wishing she could rub her rapidly-bruising arm, Darcy paused, whirling on the spot and craning to hear. She could've sworn she heard her name whispered, as if by the wind or something. She totally needed a sandwich or something before she went crazier. She'd even eat her own iPod right now, given half a chance, and if the object itself wasn't in her purse, which they'd probably hurled down some dark, drippy trash chute. This abduction was gonna cost a lot of her paycheck.

The Deonist leader walked over while she was frowning, grabbing her arm roughly. "Keep up. We move on." He shoved her before him, to follow the few that had already begun to leave the room through another passage.

"D'you guys have like a Marauder's map or some-" Darcy's inquiry was cut off by a swift "Quiet!" and she began to think these guys' plan was not so well thought-out as they let on. They seemed terribly nervous at the slightest noise, but she couldn't imagine what would terrify them so.

Once or twice, she heard a couple mention an above-ground outpost at one end of this circuit of bunkers, which was assumably where the trade would be made. Darcy almost sniggered at the thought they were in a sort of abandoned power station setup – didn't that imply some sort of home turf for Thor, a god of thunder and lightning and stuff? – but grew grave at the thought that they'd hurt her if he tried anything.

At one point, she could have sworn she heard her name again, and she tried to slow down, flicking her frightened gaze around the surrounding blackened walls. She was shoved forward again, but as they passed another fork in the tunnels, she could have sworn she saw faint light coming from one. Really-old emergency lights running on energizer bunny batteries maybe? Or it could just be ghosts, lots of ghosts, because this day couldn't get any worse.

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Darcy, Darcy, Darcy," Loki was muttering to himself, eyeing the slimy passage he traversed with distaste, unaware that bits of his power were subconsciously channeling into the utterances. "How hard could it be to find one small mortal in this relic of a structure…" Conjuring several wisps of sentient energy, he began to send them along different passageways, the small pieces of power functioning like antennae that would alert him to other presences.

He didn't notice the object in his path until he nearly tripped, his boot snagging on something. Letting out a colorful Asgardian curse and supremely glad no one else had been around to see his little show, he directed his accompanying orb towards the ground to illuminate the obstacle.

It was Darcy's bag, proving as troublesome as the girl was herself sometimes, he thought fondly, and he'd never been gladder to see the shapeless sack she insisted upon carrying everywhere, full of food and cosmetics and other mortal paraphernalia. He knew Darcy was the sort of person who, even in the midst of a crisis, would be asking where her things were, the concern even taking priority over her own safety. He muttered a quick spell that would send the bag and contents back to her apartment, all save her cell phone, which he stashed in his armor.

As he resumed his careful prowl down the tunnel, the area widened slightly, and it appeared different chambers branched out from this one. As he peered inside the first on his left, Loki's jaw set in a deep frown as he spotted an ancient chair, the only object in the room. Remnants of rope were still hanging from the base and sides, and as he drew closer, his hands clenched involuntarily into tight fists, nails biting into his own palms when he saw blood staining the material. Hers. Likely resulting from the indubitably too-tight restraints chafing her slender wrists.

Glancing down, he spotted several more splatters of crimson liquid, enough to mix with the dirt of the floor and create a macabre mud around the chair.

The chair was promptly kicked aside with enough force to send it catapulting at the opposite wall, splintering on contact with several sharp cracks. New Mexico would be lucky if anything was left standing unless he had Darcy back soon.

The mischief god swept silently from the room, the shreds of wood the only sign he'd been there at all.

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Darcy was in the midst of a glaring match with a random Deonist of the group, wishing she could set him on fire with her stare, and simultaneously wondering if that was something Loki could teach her to do. It was something he likely would do to these brutal parasites, when he inevitably arrived, and she comforted herself with the thought.

Shaken from her reverie and ongoing death-glare by a clammy grip on her arm, she was pushed further against the wall of the passageway by another Deonist, who passed her to join the verbal melee that was heating up. They had paused several times down this passageway, and she wasn't sure if it was uncertainty or disagreement about the route, worry about someone or something down there with them (Darcy, for one, was hearing and seeing things), or if it was to let her rest, the last of which she highly doubted.

Pressing herself against the section of frigid but thankfully dry wall, Darcy swallowed thickly, suddenly under the impression that something was watching her. Eyes darting from side to side, she was sure she looked a fool, even as she caught something bright flickering in the corner of her vision. In the split-second it took to look, it was gone, leaving her feeling more insane than ever. It was probably the dungeon-vision or something. That meant a new contacts prescription, pronto.

She didn't notice the bickering had ceased until the burliest of them approached, leaning down to snarl in her ear. "We are near the meeting place. No more noise from you."

As he reached for her, Darcy's veins filled with icy fear at what he meant to do, and her fight-or-flight response dictated that she should run, now, of all times. Breaking from the wall, she dashed for the nearest entryway, managing to use their surprise to get ahead of the Deonists, despite her bindings and the rapidly-ensuing darkness as she distanced herself from their lanterns.

"Guess all that time spent on SHIELD treadmills paid off," she huffed to herself, awkwardly rounding a barely-visible corner and nearly coming to a halt at the utter darkness. She could hear growls behind her, and that spurred her on, awkwardly feeling her way by scraping her shoulder painfully along the wall.

There was a sudden clanging noise, as what sounded like an air vent shoot above her head was opened, and a rapidly-descending light revealed the burly Deonist leaping into her path, eliciting a shriek from Darcy's pained lips. How on earth did these guys know the infrastructure more than her? The burly Deonist's expression was neither comforting nor inviting, and she whipped around to see the others had arrived and blocked her path.

"Please, I…won't…" Her words trailed off, as she realized her impossible situation and that no words were going to get her out of this. Sensing the menacing alien behind her a second before her arm was grabbed, she let out a wailing "no-" before she was flung against the wall, the sound cut off by the impact. She fell to the ground, struggling to remain conscious, dimly aware of one Deonist snapping that they wouldn't have anything left to trade if she died. He was shushed quickly.

Hey, dead looks like unconscious for a while, doesn't it…Darcy's addled brain was putting together despairing thoughts foggily, before she was suddenly hefted up and off the ground, slung across the large alien's shoulder. The movement invoked enough dizziness to send her over the edge into unconsciousness again, her head and mane of hair flopping limply as the crew of aliens resumed their earlier path.

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thor was torn between flying himself to the location, thought he wasn't sure where it was, and staying with Jane to ensure she stayed safe, their destination not the only risk. She drove terribly, even by Thor's estimation, and the most experience he had with mortal vehicles centered on their bumpers and impact with them.

Nearly wrenching off the door handle in an attempt to steady himself after another wild turn, Thor raised a cautious finger to the GPS mounted on the dashboard. "Are we there yet?"

Weakly grinning at the word choice of the adorable man-boy-deity she was in love with, Jane nodded, making one final turn onto a dirt road that was barely discernible from the surrounding turf. "I think the end of this road…" The vehicle came to a sharp stop, nearly ripping Thor from his seat belt and catapulting him through the windshield. He suspected these safety devices were not designed for his kind.

The causes of their sudden halt folded their arms, stern frowns upon their sunglasses-clad faces. Several SHIELD agents and their cars had formed a public roadblock, not that anyone would use this road, so Jane suspected it was for her alone, and that her ID wouldn't get her through this particular gate.

"Thor, does Mjölnir cause motion sickness?"

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A tendril of energy had come creeping back, and Loki could sense he was close now. Rounding another corner, he froze as a shrill wail echoed towards him, abruptly cutting off. He knew that voice.

Checking that his daggers were in their sheaths, he absently patted the spot where the chain Darcy had given him was safely stashed away. "I'm coming, Darcy."


	3. Chapter 3

Darcy Lewis had experienced pneumonia before, after one particularly grueling night of research when Jane had insisted her intern take notes during an outdoors all-night observational session. Freezing temperatures, particularly at night, were no stranger to New Mexico, despite general appearances, and Jane appeared to not have thought her plan through when she even insisted Erik lock them out on the roof and leave the premises, to return in the morning when they were finished. All in the name of science, right?

Symptoms had included a rattling in her lungs whenever she breathed, accompanied by sniffling and frequent, phlegm-clogged coughs.

She was pretty damn sure she had it now, or something close to it.

Shivering incessantly, a sheen of perspiration covering her forehead, Darcy was bound with her back to a frigid metal pillar, nearly convinced she would die before anyone found her. Rats would gnaw on her bones, her expensive clothes would never get a chance to find a home at the secondhand store to fund her next designer outfit – Wait, what the hell?

Shaking her head dazedly, Darcy tried to focus her attention across the room. The Deonists had bound her to a support pillar near a wall of the warehouse they had surfaced in, though she wasn't even sure if surfaced was the right word. There were still no windows, and the air was no different, still clammy and close, but the high-vaulted ceilings and expansive layout of this chamber seemed to imply ground level.

A wet cough croaked past her raw lips, the force of it jarring her against her restraints, and eliminating all previous train of thought, that she had seen something red flash across the room in a doorway. Sagging back against the pillar after the effort the coughing cost her, she tried to drag her gaze across the situation again.

She'd awoken an hour ago, head aching, everything aching, really, tied within her slumped position to the beam. The alien who'd knocked her out had, of course, noticed she was awake before the others, stalking over to growl some threat or other if she made any noise beyond breathing.

Kind of difficult when you're suffering from a lung ailment, she wanted to snipe, as the first cough bubbled up her throat. Resisting the urge to ask if they had any Nyquil, she'd spent the time staring at possible escape routes, when she could bear to keep her eyes open. Her contacts were hell at the moment, like pieces of gum stuck under her eyelids at this point.

Still, she could swear she'd seen something across the room.

Her thoughts were interrupted by a loud bang across the room. The Deonists had jumped, spreading out in defensive crouches, when a black cat had randomly appeared from behind an electrical fixture, meowing loudly. Her alien captors had appeared dumbfounded, standing stock-still for a full minute.

"Alrighty, yep, I'm done, my brain's clocking out," Darcy muttered aloud, her voice hoarser than the time she'd eaten a whole grilled jalapeno in one go on a dare at a local Mexican restaurant. Too bad there was no nice blended margarita to soothe right now…

With a loud hiss, the cat took off running, fleeing down a passageway at the far end of the room. The lead Deonist started barking orders, and two followed it. The others converged in a tight huddle, staring at some sort of tablet the leader pulled out.

While they were occupied, Darcy let out a ragged sigh, which led to another cough, wracking her body hard enough that she saw stars in her vision. When it cleared, she started a high-pitched squeak, which was quickly completely muffled by a firm but gentle hand across her mouth. She was totally imagining it, but Loki seemed to be in front of her, in all his hunky black leather-clad glory, a positively deadly look on his face as he looked her up and down, gently releasing her jawline.

Putting a pale finger to his lips, he ghosted past her and out of sight, and her knees nearly crumpled. Her imagination was going to get a demotion if this was all it had for her, Loki coming and going without even a make-out session. Then again, was pneumonia contagious? She wouldn't want to give mirage-Loki pneumonia…

The consultation cluster at the end of the room split up, the aliens starting to spread out across the room, eyeing everything and anything with suspicious glares. The one who'd chased the cat had returned, a hilariously human-like shrug his only response to inquiries if he'd found it or why it was here.

From outside there came a distant boom, the noise far longer than a typical thunder crash, Darcy thought, and she smiled thinly as the noise grew closer and louder. Her expression turned to one of shock, and her captors as well, for Thor had appeared. Right in the middle of the room, with cloak and hammer and golden locks of glory and everything intact.

He hefted his hammer, tapping it absentmindedly against his palm as he silently regarded the Deonists. Then he disappeared from sight as quickly as he'd appeared.

The aliens sufficiently distracted for the moment, Darcy sensed someone suddenly behind her. Craning fearfully to see behind her, she failed, but a soothing, velvet tone spoke straight into ear a second later. "Don't be afraid. Give me a few moments."

With that, mirage-Loki – or was it the real Loki, Darcy's vision was clouding again and she didn't really know up from down at the moment, strode out into the middle of the room. "Gentlemen, Deonists, my potential comrades. What brings you to this fair realm? Or should I say, such a poor example of the fairness of this realm…" Loki's condescending sneer was spot-on as he paused to swipe a finger across the grimy surface of an old generator.

"Loki, brother of Thor, we should ask you the same thing." The Deonist leader had spoken, and Darcy didn't miss the tallest Deonist quietly edging out of the room. Loki didn't seem to see it, bowing his head as he raised a hand and waved it nonchalantly.

"I come here for the same as you, leverage against my brother, and may I say, I think you've chosen a prime candidate, though the goods appear…damaged…" Loki raised an ebony brow in Darcy's direction with apparent distaste, though she thought she saw a wink before his gaze reverted. "I've heard of your offer to my brother, and I'd like to instead propose a trade myself. I believe I can use the mortal far more effectively against my brother, and I can offer you your own power source as incentive, which is what you have come for, is it not? I assume you've heard of the Tesseract?" As he spoke, he pulled what looked to Darcy like a Rubik's cube from his pocket, which flared to life with a blue glow when it fully exited his armor. She blinked, brow furrowing. What was he up to?

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Jane could kill for the bottle of Sprite she'd left in the car right at this moment, her mouth felt like she'd face planted onto the desert floor. Brushing stray sand from her hands, she surveyed the ledge Thor had landed them on, idly glancing back down to her phone to see if "Darcy" had texted again.

As Jane and Thor had come up with a plan on the spot, SHIELD agents starting to stride towards the stopped car, Jane's phone had vibrated with a text message, appearing from Darcy's number.

Make thunder in five minutes. –L

Loki must have found Darcy, and despite her earlier misgivings, Jane felt her heart unclench from the suffocating worry. But if he needed their help, they weren't out of the woods yet.

Jane nodded at Thor, and they exited the vehicle simultaneously, coming around together to the front bumper with hands raised in placating gestures. At the last second, Thor grabbed Jane around the waist, locking her against his side, and spun Mjölnir in a familiar gesture, launching them from the ground a moment later.

Jane made the mistake of gasping, and hot, sandy air immediately filled her mouth. Trying not to choke, she buried her face in Thor's chest armor until he'd landed them, a scant thirty seconds later.

Now she was staring at the desolate, supposedly-abandoned building that lay before them, intimidating in its height and warning sign-clad fences. It loomed seemingly out of nowhere, contrasting starkly against the bright orange and brown tones of the rock formations that sheltered it.

Quirking her mouth into a frown, she reached for Thor's hand and they picked their way towards it. If anyone saw them coming, there was no indication given, and after a few moments, Thor gazed up at the sky, gauging his timing before summoning a quick but impressive burst of thunder, as requested. He could only hope it helped.

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At the sight of the Tesseract, it was fair to say the Deonists' interest was piqued. Darcy was simply trying to get a look at the thing, which seemed to pulse with too-bright light whenever she looked directly at it.

The aliens looked at Loki in unison. "You would give us this immense gift in exchange for one feeble human female?"

"As I'm sure you've noticed, my brother is heavily invested in that sort of thing," Loki's tone was dry, and he idly moved the hovering tesseract between both hands.

"We would leave without incident?" The Deonist leader questioned, and Loki nodded silently.

"If we may examine what you offer, Mischief," the alien began, and Loki nodded again curtly. "If I may do the same, yes." He flicked his wrist, and the hovering blue cube shot towards the Deonist, startling him. In the blink of an eye, Loki was before Darcy, hands behind his back as he appeared to eye her clinically. But she could see turmoil in his gaze, and she avoided eye contact, knowing she must look terrible.

Luckily, his height and shoulder breath, complete with armor, served to mostly conceal their interaction from the Deonists' sight, who were squealing over the blue cube like human children with a new toy, anyways.

A cool hand landed on her jaw line, stroking gently before turning it, Loki examining the extent of her head injuries. His soothing touch grazed her shredded bottom lip, and the lingering pain began to dwindle instantly, but a cough worked its way up her throat, escaping in a flurry of gasps and bringing tears to her eyes.

A distraught expression crossed his face, and his hand traveled down over her bare shoulder, noting her persistent shivering. He muttered a guttural phrase, brow furrowed, until she began to feel a warm sensation roll across her body. "Best I can manage at this moment, I'm afraid, until I can get you out of here. They're very powerful, and could attempt to sap my own power at any moment…" His words ghosted across her cheek as he leaned in after a casual glance behind him, and he pressed a quick kiss to her temple.

His eyes closed for a brief second, and he murmured almost undiscernibly, "I'm so sorry, Darcy," before they opened again and she saw nothing but anguish. Just like that, his hands were back behind him, and he swept from her, long black coat flaring behind him. He made an intimidating sight as always, and she felt invigorated, knowing her mischief god would get her out. Awkwardly sinking to the floor within her restraints, she settled against the pillar, content to focus on her own breathing.

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Jane and Thor had made it within ten feet of the building when the first loud crash sounded inside. Already swinging Mjölnir, Thor pressed Jane to an alcove, murmuring for her to stay there, and promptly smashed the door down, heading in without a backward glance.

He found a bizarre sight; his brother, flinging daggers and shards of spell work even as he dodged a barrage of energy fired from what looked like a less sophisticated Stark suit. Darcy was at the far end of the chamber, bound to a pillar, alone for the moment, though he noticed one of his brother's assailant's sneaking back towards her. With a roar, he flung his hammer, but the alien seemed to sense it coming, rolling out of the way with an enraged cry, firing his own weapon in Thor's direction.

In the midst of the chaos, a lone Rubik's cube lay on the floor, the unassuming mortal toy's bright colors very vivid against the concrete floor.

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"And do we have a deal?" Loki's suave tone, conjoling and sickly-sweet, had reached Darcy's ears as he reached the aliens, whose huddle parted, the leader stepping forward with a smile.

"Yes, we will take what you offer. And your power, and your brother's, Loki, god of mischief, trickery, and chaos. And you will watch while she dies."

Okay, that hadn't been in the script Darcy had been writing for this scene in her head. With a gulp, she struggled to raise herself from the floor, in some attempt to appear less defenseless, even as Loki struck.

A wave of his fingers and the luminescent box fell dull, blue color and light disappearing instantly, and the box toppled to the floor, true nature revealed. At the same time, the Deonist who had edged out of the room returned, in the same suit that had been used when Darcy was originally kidnapped.

"Loki look out-" she screamed, her windpipe protesting fiercely at the expenditure, but somehow she ignored the pain as the gun fired at Loki. She suspected it was not set to stun, as it had been with her, and luckily, her trickster flung himself out of the weapon blast's trajectory with a roll that would have done her karate teacher proud.

By this time the other aliens had spread out, attempting a fan around Loki, and all had retrieved similarly strange blasters from within their robes. She didn't want to know what else was in there, and she began to struggle at her bonds, tears leaking from her eyes as her wrists' bleeding resumed with a vengeance, desperate to help the outnumbered god.

Loki was holding his own, however, quickly summoning several mirror images of himself to even the playing field. While they could do nothing physically, the daggers they hurled with quick precision appeared real until the last second, forcing the Deonists to dodge an intense barrage even as they sought the original Loki.

A cry of triumph escaped one of the Deonists, who appeared to have caught a Loki, which then vanished from his grip. With a confused bellow, he fired his weapon at random, hitting the real Loki by some odd chance. The mischief god snarled in agony as a blast caught his shoulder, and he collapsed to one knee, emerald eyes clouding with rage and pain as he clutched at the wound that had ripped a hole in the leather covering him.

Darcy let out a distressed cry, alerting the Deonists that yes, she was still here, and she noticed the leader glance at her with a calculated gleam in his eye, before starting to approach her. He didn't get far before Loki had sent a massive blast of energy at the far wall, missing the Deonists but somehow still knocking two to the ground. It hit the wall with a deafening bang, and Darcy started to wonder if she should worry about propane tanks or anything in the vicinity that might blow up on contact with alien pyrotechnics.

Thor entered at that moment, but Loki didn't seem to notice, hurling another dagger that met its mark with a pained howl from one of the Deonists. The leader was again creeping towards Darcy, but Thor seemed to notice, sending Mjölnir his way with a roar. Though the hammer missed, the Deonist was knocked off course by his evasion, twisting to aim his weapon at Thor.

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Darcy could only watch, transfixed by the grim struggle before her, until a whisper at her shoulder elicited a frightened yelp. It was Jane, who had somehow made her way through the shadows to her wounded assistant's side. Murmuring placating nothings, Jane started to work on the bindings around Darcy's wrists, but they were slippery with blood, and the astrophysicist almost gagged in revulsion.

Glancing up, she noted the two gods holding their own against their advanced enemies, though Loki seemed to be slowing down. She knew he was not accustomed to all-out combat, preferring to strike quickly and from the shadows, and she was, frankly, surprised at the lengths he had gone to so far to save her former intern. As she watched, he executed an elaborate kick, sweeping a Deonist from his feet and finally knocking the alien out with a strong spell that left purple mist in the air.

With a quiet cry of success, Jane finished unraveling the robes around Darcy's wrist, pulling her weakened friend to her feet. Darcy leaned on her heavily, cuts and bruises visible from her face, to her shoulders, to her mangled forearms, but she swallowed heavily, insisting she wasn't leaving without Loki.

At last, only the Deonist in the mechanized suit was standing, the others in various stages of unconsciousness and strewn about the room. Loki and Thor faced him side by side, both panting with exertion.

"It is over, Deonist." Loki spat the word like it was a foul taste in his mouth, adjusting his leather trench coat dignifiedly around him as if it didn't have several rips and tears across it.

"No, it is just beginning, you pitiful excuse for a deity," the alien growled, and before anyone could move, the gun it held shot what looked like a taser bolt, straight towards Thor.

It hit the god of thunder with enough force to knock him down with a pained roar, and Jane couldn't keep herself from shrieking his name. There was a flash of light, and what looked like lightning began to channel down the weapon's connecting bolt, from Thor to the suit. The Deonist closed his eyes in what looked like pleasure, and Jane was disgusted. Looking at Darcy beside her, she noted the girl was barely standing; Jane would have to trust Loki to save his brother.

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Loki was staring in horror at the leeching bolt stuck in his brother's chest, draining his energy to fuel the suit the damned alien wore. A rash idea entering his head, he hoped it would work as he lunged towards Thor, grabbing the bolt squarely with both hands. But he didn't try to pry it out, merely held on as it began to sap his power as well.

From behind him, he could hear Darcy let out a strangled cry.

Panting heavily, he noted with satisfaction the bulge of energy that began to travel up the weapon's connection. The deonist's expression grew increasingly panicked, and he began to struggle to retract the weapon. It was to no avail, as Loki had a vice grip on the thing, and he suspected the weapon was not made to absorb the energy of two gods at once.

As it reached the Deonist, Loki flung himself over Thor, putting up a meager magical barrier just as the suit-clad Deonist appeared to implode with the overload of power. Shreds of shrapnel, bits of ichor, and other things the mortal women didn't want to think about cascaded through the room, as they ducked behind a broken generator themselves.

For a moment, there was silence, broken only by the quiet huffs of Loki's breath as he tugged the alien weaponry from Thor's chest, who groaned loudly.

Then all hell broke loose, as men clad in black suits stormed the building, shouting orders to stand down and put down weapons and all the usual jibberish. Jane was staring at her phone randomly, telling Darcy that SHIELD was in possession of the Deonists' ship, but her assistant couldn't absorb the implications of that statement at the moment, as Loki had appeared in front of her. Assured that Darcy was in good hands, Jane rushed towards Thor and the other agents, who were rounding up the dazed Deonists warily.

Darcy took one look at Loki and flung herself into his arms, trying not to wince at the contact with her wounds, gurgling out a chuckle when he even appeared winded by the movement. "Are you okay?" She murmured into his chest, fisting her hands into the leather worriedly. A shudder of his chest was the only indication he had laughed, and he folded his arms around her as tightly as he dared. "I cannot die, mortal," he breathed into her ear, and Darcy had never been so glad to hear the essentially-derogatory term.


	4. Chapter 4

"More mercy than I would have shown, but I suppose a male deity's input is going to count more than your fellow human's, even if I am merely a fully-qualified astrophysicist-"

Jane's irate tones reached Darcy from the hospital room over, where she'd ducked in to take the call from SHIELD while her assistant was being treated. Darcy would have chuckled, if she hadn't had a flashlight and some sort of probe being stuck down her throat at the moment. Loki's presence in the hallway was a balm, even more so than the antibiotic creams and bandaging and painkillers that had been heaped upon her.

When the doctor finally determined she only had a minor cough from the unfamiliar, heavily-damp air she'd been subjugated to, she'd been set free, with only a list of prescriptions to fill before she could go home.

Anxious to change, Darcy was still grateful as hell to Jane, who'd given her the sweater off her back to at least give her some coverage in the resulting interrogation and hospital visit after the climax of her abduction. Flinging herself off the last exam table and only wavering slightly from dizziness this time, Darcy nearly skipped out into the hallway to meet Loki, who was clad in a dapper Midgardian outfit, a forest-green dress shirt tucked into charcoal slacks. He looked delicious, and Darcy almost licked her lips with relish, before a nurse was gesturing at her, showing her the way to the pharmacy. She mouthed a quick "be right back" and he nodded in return, folding his arms and leaning back against the wall to wait for her.

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Prescriptions filled and bottles rattling in the bag she held, Darcy reached the lobby again a few moments later. She linked arms with Loki as she passed him, swinging him around to walk with her, and he complied with her actions with ease that would have shocked anyone else. Running his hand gently along the bandage that covered the forearm linked with his, his eyes were dim with concern. "I thought I'd lose you. I shouldn't be leaving you alone…" He trailed off, his other hand moving to brush back a stray lock of her hair, baring her bruised face.

She swatted at his hand, grimacing. "None of that angst that I knowww you love to OD on, Troublesome. This was no one's fault." She tightened her grip on his arm as they approached Jane's SUV. Thor had recovered within moments from his own ordeal, though he was a little shaky on his feet, and was beaming at them from the passenger seat.

When Darcy was secured in the back seat, Loki shut her door, flitting to the other side and climbing in gracefully, clasping her hand in his again almost instantly. Jane, trying to subtly watch through her rearview mirror, caught Loki's eye, and she blushed, her gaze skittering away, but not before she had reached a mental conclusion: she could trust him with Darcy.

"Is it okay if we talk business for one second?" Jane ventured, pulling out of the hospital parking lot. Darcy groaned. "If this is about the paperwork you allowed me to skip out on when we went out for drinks-" it seemed like so long ago, when it was in fact only near midnight, on the following day.

Jane was shaking her head. "No, not at all. The, uh, aliens…" Darcy recoiled involuntarily at the mention of her captors, and Loki reached an arm across her shoulders, his thumb rubbing comforting circles near her collarbone. "Sorry, Darce, it's just that SHIELD already decided what to do with them, as per a suggestion by Loki." Darcy looked at him with surprise, but his eyes were averted, staring with sudden rapt interest out the darkened window.

"They're showing them mercy," Jane continued, "And launching their ship back into space pronto. Loki helped them with some sort of device while you were getting checked out, that's gonna detect their technology signature if they so much as look in Earth's direction. They and others of their kind won't be back."

Darcy was sporting a painfully wide grin that grew wider with everything Jane said. Despite her ill wishes for the aliens during her captivity, she could see why they did what they did, and that it was in their nature. Not that unleashing them on the rest of the universe was going to be beneficial, but she was happily shocked that Loki had displayed such a show of mercy. She reached out a bandaged hand, tilting his face to ensure his emerald eyes locked with her cerulean ones. "I'm so proud!"

He seemed to blush, ducking his face into her grip like a cat for a moment, and some memory of a cat playing into the battle clicked, in the back of her mind. "What can I say? When I'm not conquering the realms of lesser beings, I resort to mundane mortal acts, such as rescuing damsels in distress and enacting disgusting shows of mercy." He punctuated the end of the statement with a kiss, first to Darcy's lips, then her bandaged temple, pulling her closer to him.

Thor's laughter rumbled from the front seat, and even Jane was grinning as she navigated the deserted roads of Puente Antiguo after midnight. Darcy just patted Loki's jaw line fondly, grabbing his hand and clutching it to her chest as she snuggled in for the ride home.


End file.
